Preliminary Results

I spoke with Clay's neurosurgeon and the MRI results from last Friday look to be stable. I discussed some of the headaches and vomiting issues that Clay was having with her, and she seems to think much of it is related to the shunt. Apparently many of her patients with shunts are sensitive to heat and she thinks that is causing his discomfort more than anything else. This is good news; although trying to control the heat in Washington is no easy task. We have an appointment to discuss the MRI in detail on June 29. It seems likely that the plan will be another monitoring MRI in three more months. Meanwhile Clay enjoyed the last few weeks of pre-school and is looking forward to a few weeks of morning camps.

Thank you to all our friends and family who called, wrote, prayed, and sent us positive vibes for this MRI. "Stable" has become one of our favorite words. I am convinced all of the love and energy that is directed towards Clay from so many people is impacting him directly.

Grace's cast came off and she is doing fine. She handed out Harry Potter stickers to her doctors at her last appointment. I think she has a crush on her surgeon.

Happy Father's Day to everyone! We are enjoying the day helping JD garden and eat dark chocolate.

Cool Cast

For friends and family looking for an update on Grace: today she got a cool new cast. The most difficult part for Grace was choosing the color: pink, red, blue, green, purple, black, yellow, or orange? And of course the physician's assistant said if she couldn't decide, he could do stripes! All of this has propelled Grace to rock star status in the second grade.

We also got to take home a copy of the x-ray showing the pin holding her bone together. Maybe this will be good for a future show-and-share day. Next step--cast off in two weeks, then 4-6 weeks of physical therapy to get everything working again.

Please keep Clay in your thoughts next week as his next MRI is on Friday morning.